


World of Remnant

by BF110C4



Series: Paths [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-12 06:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4468106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BF110C4/pseuds/BF110C4
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a collection of some of my worldbuilding notes for the Path Series that I wrote in a World of Remnant format. While they don't need to be readed to understand the story they'll explain the background in greater detail.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Unlocking the Aura

World of Remnant: Unlocking the Aura

 

Aura is the way humanity has prevailed time after time against the Grimm, its warm embrace is a loyal and steadfast companion of men from the moment they are born, and through it protects the body, strengthen his weapons, will the power of Dust and can even project itself into an ability unique for every individual. 

But what differentiates the mighty protectors of humanity from those they are sworn to defend?

Unlocking the aura is considered the first step of the steep abyss between man and warrior, one step that while simple, maybe one in a thousand can carry to complexion. 

There are two schools of thought regarding the training of Aura. The first one, usually known as Forceful, performs the unlocking at the completion of puberty in a single explosive action, releasing the Aura at the exact stage of development when the body and mind are developed enough to withstand the stress, but with a soul flexible and pliable enough that they apprentice can still benefit from a full training that can address and develop his strengths and cover for it weaknesses. However even with a strict selection of the fittest candidates and the appropriate physical and spiritual preparations there is a high probability of failure, which usually manifest into a backlash and temporal or even permanent metaphysical damage to the aspirant, and if poorly performed it might even affect the master who fails to properly perform the unlocking. 

It is the preferred method in both Mistral and Atlas kingdoms, for its advantages regarding recruitment of candidates outside the traditional hunter circles. Atlas especially has founded no less than six of academy’s for the preparation and training of ‘squires’ and in Vale Signal Academy is the one tasked for the recruitment of suitable candidates and their posterior education.

The second school, known as Gradual or simply Traditional, says that the Aura should grow at the same pace that the body, so it slowly and carefully unlocks the aura on a period that spans from the early infancy to the start of puberty. This process inhibits the natural growth of Aura in the body and instead the caretakers slowly and methodically adjust the amount of Aura that can be accessed by the child. This is complemented by a full regiment of physical and meditative training, usually disguised as games, that eventually grants the children under it an intuitive understanding of the nuances of his Aura.

Unlocking the Aura as such young age is not without risks either. A child soul is a flexible and delicate thing, and the same factors that can develop it into a formidable weapon can make it brittle. For that reason special care is put in the pacing of the training, limiting the amount of available Aura so that they can’t reach beyond their grasp. These precautions also effectively prevents the early development of a Semblance, although there are known cases through accident, negligence or sheer desperation a child has developed one often with undesirable consequences to both the mind and body.

The main drawback of this method is measured in time; while it takes one year of reasonably supervised training to create a Hunter candidate of passable skill using forceful measures to gradually forge a new candidate requires the full attention of a skilled Aura manipulator for roughly six years of dedicated training to no more than a handful of children making it unpractical outside Hunter’s clans, dedicated facilities and in some cases exceptional families. 

But there are few who can argue with the finished product. The gradual method consistently produces a string of Aura warriors and Dust manipulators with far fewer rejections of the full unlocking procedure and known for the fine control of their abilities.


	2. Early Training

World of Remnant: Early Training

 

The Path of a Hunter is a Lonely One, this is a fact of life not only for those who hunt the Grimm but for all Aura users in general, and those who are the legacies of past generations know it better than anyone. Children who get even a partial release of their Aura when young are forced to forfeit early in life things that most take for granted. 

For them knifes and .22 rifles join teddy bears and videogames in the toy box. Their bodies are endlessly honed, first by developing them with physical exercise and then by weapon drills, katas, and a succession of increasingly realistic sparring session, tactical scenarios and even tightly controlled Grimm hunts. 

During those years sparring is the main form of entertainment, with some parents passing their knowledge to their heirs so that they can continue to nurture the family arts, while other allow the children to freely experiment with different styles until finding one that marches their own temperament and skills. 

To train the Aura the children become deeply acquainted with Dust Lanterns, traditionally shaped fulgurite containers filled with a mix of sand and expended Dust, nowadays high tech containers with refinements such as Aura Sensors and scroll link integration are also available. Regardless of the materials used or the technological refinements all Dust Lanterns are employed the same way, with the apprentice manifesting and directing the Aura towards the Dust contained inside and forcing it to activate in a harmless display of light and sound. 

The difficulty can easily be adjusted by manipulating the amount of impurities introduced into the mix so by working with mostly sand the student needs to force a larger amount of Aura to turn the Lantern on, therefore training both stamina and strength, n the other hand combining different kinds of Dust and then seeing the color of the light Is a painless way of determining elemental affinities. For finer control the purity of the Dust is increased so that even the slightest projection of Aura illuminates the whole area, those aspirants wishing to participate in the complex art of Dust Manipulation are expected to being able to shift between any of the main mixes of Dust seemly at will. 

Training is done without regards of the desires of the children with every game and exercise designed with the goal of taking their next step towards a fully unlocked Aura. Neither tomfoolery nor slacking is not tolerated, complains are ignored at best or brutally punished at worst. 

Memorizing gun characteristics and Dust reaction tables shall be done without failure, the same way that perfection is expected for each punch and each sword drill. Injuries are not only expected, but in many occasions inflicted on purpose to teach them how to work while on pain as well as coaxing the Aura about how to heal wounds and prevent infection.

This is not without good reason, while unlocking one’s Aura allows its use in a myriad of useful ways it also rightfully described as the life force that runs through every single living being, and life force which perils of its own. 

While respect for the perils of the martial arts and the great many ways that they can cause harm by either accident or design is only the most obvious reason, there are also plenty of risks that come from the manipulation of Dust, many of them debilitating or lethal on their own right. And of course giving such freedom to the soul carry their own set of dangers civilians won’t ever be exposed. 

Semblances are usually described as the projection of Aura in a more tangible form but some of the older texts describe them as the unique manifestation of one’s self. It is often noted that big or small, mighty or subtle, a Semblance is the perfect reflection of how a person sees himself deep down and that regardless of the form it takes is perfect for its owner. But this is a two way mirror, a Semblance is a reflection of the soul, but if the mental image of someone is not clearly defined then the soul might become the reflection of the Semblance as well. 

Children that due to either irresponsible training or sheer desperation discover their Semblance too early can be affected by it. Both physical and mental development is affected to better fit the Semblance, be more flexible but far weaker muscles to better fit an agility based Semblance to an attention disorder for those who can create clones. More important there are certain mental triggers related to the circumstances that gave origin to the Semblance that can negatively affect the emotional and mental responses, to the point that in those cases they either are left defenseless or they might get tunnel vision, ignoring anything but their objective.

Even the hormonal unbalances of puberty are enough cause of concern that is imperative that the body and mind are either used to grow with the burden of a fully liberated Aura or that trainers withhold any attempt to unlock it until most of the adolescent’s body is properly settled. For those who let these dire warnings unheeded sterility is the less of their worries.

But the most painful part of the training is without doubt the isolation,

Bitter past experiences had shown that mixing normal children with those with even a partially liberated Aura seldom ends well. For children capable of feats of strength worthy of people twice their age, no matter how disciplined, all that it takes is a bout of roughhousing, a punch thrown in anger, or even a moment of careless affection for it to end in tragedy. Even discounting those potential problems the maturity, self-reliance and inner discipline of an apprentice is more than enough to create a chasm between them and normal children.

To help fight back against the threat of social isolation User families mingle in tight-knit communities and often take the children in playdates, picnics, formal and informal tournaments, and especially cross training sessions. Also they make use of the same remote education capabilities that some isolate settlements without the benefit of a proper school do for the children, ensuring at the very least the same academic standards that society demands while letting get some form of socialization with peers their age. 

Ultimately sooner or later they will reach the point where their Aura is finally released and from there they will begin the next phase of their education, this time in a completely different setting with completely different rules.


	3. New Blood

World of Remnant: New Blood

 

Traditionally in the Kingdom of Vale the creation of a new huntsman was the work of a lifetime, starting the process as soon as children would leave the cradle, and working through early childhood to gain the basic abilities for using the Aura to the upmost, a methodical way that raised Aura Users of exceptional skills. The forceful methods used in both Mistral and Atlas were by comparison brutish and gave none of the might or elegance gained through careful nurturing. 

This changed with the disaster at Mountain Glenn and the ruinous counterattacks that followed. In less than a month an entire generation of hunters and huntresses were wasted trying save a doomed population. With the horrendous losses the entire kingdom was left defenseless and new hunters would take no less than six years to get even the most basic skills using traditional methods.

Surviving veteran members were send to every corner of the Kingdom to search for appropriate candidates, from the refugee camps to the surviving towns that weren’t evacuated and the poorer neighborhoods were only faunus dare to live, scourging every corner for young children with a strong Aura and little else. 

Then they forcefully activated their Aura, a process that back then failed nine out of ten times to produce the desired results and that could end with the candidates crippled for live or worse, and those who could pass muster were hastily trained, given mass produced weapons and then send to the surrounded towns with orders to kill the Grimm or be killed themselves. 

The Kingdom was saved but at only through the blood of children…

To prevent ever paying again such terrible cost Signal Academy was created embracing Atlas mass recruiting methods and combining them with the standards of excellence that Vale hunters are known for. Based on those two otherwise different ways they refined the selection process as much as it was possible minimizing the risks to potential candidates while improving quality. 

Teachers of the school search in every corner for children ten to twelve years old, without regards for economic social or even racial status. Some go to prestigious schools and search for those academically and athletically gifted, others track those who survive in the slums of society through cunning and grit, and some others talk to hunters willing to recommend a particularly capable brat from isolated villages in the far corners of the Kingdom. 

Only those who demonstrate a resilient body and mind, a disposition towards hard work, and a certain amount of courage are considered. The choice of the recruiters is based on his experience, and they might sometimes chose someone strong and decide to get him academically up to scratch, in other cases they might get someone skilled and knowledgably and train their bodies to the required levels of strength. And occasionally they might bet on a black horse purely based on courage, honor or another quality only they can see, but the final and more important factor is an Aura strong enough, since no amount of wit, muscles or bravery can withstand the training of Huntsmen by itself.

In any case quality is ensured by the fact that the recruiters are handsomely paid based on their successes but they have to pay all expenses from washouts (up to the end of their first year), including medical bills and funerals. Also with few exceptions they are the ones that personally must perform the Unlocking ceremony, therefore putting them in direct risk in case of a backlash. This guarantees that regardless of other considerations only those that are truly capable can be elected for this honor and burden. 

Once this initial hurdle is overcome the candidates are taken through an intense preparation course that might last from three months to up to two years colloquially known as Signal's Year 0. In it the prospective Users learn the basics of Aura and hone the rest of their physical and mental skills to the limit of their endurance in preparation to their future. 

Then one day, different for each one, they are taken to an individual spar were their sponsor quite literally beat then to within an inch of their lives. This is not done out of cruelty or some banal reason, but to put their minds and bodies in the middle of an adrenaline rush while forcing their Auras to act to protect the body and start slowly healing the injuries sustained, doing so minimizes the chance of having a fatal backlash when the Aura is finally unlocked.

Then is time of the unlocking, with a few chosen words the recruiter, sponsor and future teacher uses his Aura help manifest the student’s. It is a delicate process that if done wrong can either stunt the Aura or even hurt the teacher’s in a painful backlash, but if done too slowly simply fizzles and has to be restarted another day. Expertly done on the other hand it can reinforce one element over another, sacrificing some of the potential definitive strength of the Aura for fine control or ease of projection. 

Afterwards, if the process is successful, there is a large sumptuous party and a week free of anything but basic control training as a reward for the previous hard work and an apology for the even harder years of work coming ahead.


End file.
